Hundreds of branches and thousands of jobs away: The savings orgy continues unabated at Commerzbank. Now the corona pandemic is forcing the financial institution to take even more massive austerity measures.
According to a newspaper report, Commerzbank is pushing ahead with its savings plans. At an extraordinary meeting next Wednesday, the supervisory board is expected to decide on additional job cuts and a further thinning of the branch network, the "Börsen-Zeitung" reported.
Commerzbank announced in the autumn that 4300 jobs would be cut and 200 of the 1000 branches nationwide closed. Investors and supervisors had criticized the plans as inadequate, and Commerzbank has been working on tightening the austerity measures for months.
"There will be significantly more branch closures and more job losses than previously announced," said Verdi representative and Commerzbank Supervisory Board member Stefan Wittmann in mid-June. The financial institution declined to comment on the report.
Commerzbank CFO Bettina Orlopp had repeatedly stated that the new savings plans with the figures for the second quarter should be presented in August at the latest. One reason for this is the corona pandemic. Commerzbank is therefore facing more loan defaults. The Frankfurt money house is also one of the creditors of the collapsed payment processor Wirecard.
Commerzbank major investor Cerberus did not want to wait for the plans for a new austerity program and made a stunk at a letter to Stefan Schmittmann, chairman of the supervisory board, at the beginning of June. The US financial investor called for a strategy shift, savings and two seats on the board.
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